a journey with us to find
Is Authenticity Still Alive?
Treatment
A Semi-Performative Documentary
LOGLINE
Will the masks explore what it really means to be authentic in a world that rewards performance?
CONCEPT
In a world obsessed with perfection and technology, we’ve started to fake-perform our lives instead of living them. This documentary discusses the way in which human beings conceal themselves behind digital versions of themselves, confusing reality and illusion, while having to search for authenticity in a world that rewards a fake show. This performative documentary that we have planned will feature 2 fictional characters that tie the interviews together:
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The Catalyst : A character who has strong opinions about ingenuinity in this world. He believes that we are heading to a fake and heartless dystopian future that should be fought against for the sake of humanity. He is very passionate about his views.
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The Killer : A shady character who is never revealed. They randomly pop in and out of the frame (inspired by Fight Club scenes where Brad Pitt glitches in and out of the frame for less than a second). He is a metaphor for ingenuity going all out to kill human authenticity
The Full Story
ACT ONE — The Masks
The opening scene is purely cinematic. It will be a visual from where the cinematic story line begins. The documentary starts off with a group of five individuals donning masks. A conversation about authenticity online takes place. The Catalyst silently observes them as they go by from behind a glass.
We will be incorporating Ex Machina (2014 Alex Garland) for the visual references of reflections and glass to showcase our Catalyst. They walk into a studio with an interview set up.
ACT TWO — The Breakdown
A dip to black transition takes place right after the creation of a tense atmosphere and cuts to a scene of keeping the mask aside. Then a few glimpses of “The Catalyst” sitting in the dark, where he gives out a strong statement regarding ‘genunity’. Followed by the Media Designer (interview), talking about her field of art with relation to its survival over authenticity. But the background holds a parallel story. We would see a person’s shadow hovering around here. Sound wise - we are planning to have metallic crushes. Then jump to a b-roll of night city lights with the theme. Along with other shots, taking inspiration from Black Mirror to create a perfect world, like in the episode ‘Nosedive’ where Lacie faces a few instances where she is forced to do and behave a certain way.)
Then we would have the interview of our Art Professor and indulge with an intimate conversation about how art has been through its own growth and how much of the art made today is truly authentic.We would also have b-rolls of them working and taking us through how their professional lives look like.By this time the killer is starting to appear behind many times. Moving ahead with our interview, with the AI Director to dig deeper on the level of how new age media is transforming majorly though the existence and usage of AI. We will start having a few disorienting shots here of the Killer (quietly taken the element from “W:Two Worlds Apart”,a korean drama where the killer is faceless) While the conversation gets to be more raw and natural, someone behind can’t keep up with it “The killer”, he is all over the place, having static sound effects, which gets more deeper and intense then cut to a flash of a high beam light onto our main subject, “The Catalyst”.
ACT THREE — The Death of The Catalyst
Then the “Roughcut” interview begins. The total silence after the chaotic ending of Act 2 sets up a monologue from The Catalyst. The Catalyst is frustrated by a lot of things said throughout the interviews and is slowly going berserk with everything he has to say about the ingenuinity all around him. He talks about how he has had enough and that he wants to do something that brings about a change and puts a stop to the overpowering conflict of an ingenuine world.
As the passion sparks in him and the tension rises, We will be able to see more of the Killer much more evidently. The Killer, who has been appearing randomly throughout the documentary, is no longer someone appearing in the background. He is fully present in the scene, lurking with intent to kill.
The Killer swiftly approaches the Catalyst mid-sentence and puts an end to him with one strong blow. This paints a picture of the death of the genuine and the fight for genuinity, which will be our inevitable future.